• Users Online: 28428
  • Home
  • Print this page
  • Email this page

   Table of Contents      
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Year : 2020  |  Volume : 68  |  Issue : 7  |  Page : 1499-1500

Dry eye disease in India


Cornea and Anterior Segment Services, MGM Eye Institute, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India

Date of Web Publication25-Jun-2020

Correspondence Address:
Dr. Samrat Chatterjee
Cornea and Anterior Segment Services, MGM Eye Institute, 5th Mile, Vidhan Sabha Road, PO Mandhar, Raipur, Chhattisgarh - 493 111
India
Login to access the Email id

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None


DOI: 10.4103/ijo.IJO_2299_19

Rights and Permissions

How to cite this article:
Chatterjee S, Agrawal D, Sharma A. Dry eye disease in India. Indian J Ophthalmol 2020;68:1499-500

How to cite this URL:
Chatterjee S, Agrawal D, Sharma A. Dry eye disease in India. Indian J Ophthalmol [serial online] 2020 [cited 2024 Mar 29];68:1499-500. Available from: https://journals.lww.com/ijo/pages/default.aspx/text.asp?2020/68/7/1499/287554



Dear Editor:

Recently a study from north India reported 32% prevalence of dry eye disease (DED), and based on symptoms 81% were severe DED.[1] Another study from south India reported 1.46% DED incidence.[2] The authors predicted that within the end of next decade, large number of urban and rural populations would have DED.

We recently published our findings of meibomian gland dysfunction.[3] Here we present the unpublished findings of the study related to DED as a secondary analysis.

The results are summarized in [Table 1] and [Table 2]. The crude and age-adjusted prevalence rate of DE was 17.7% and 19.0% (95%CI: 15.7–22.1%), respectively. The crude and age-adjusted prevalence rate in males was 15.2% and 18.4% (95%CI: 14.1–22.8%), and in females was 20.5% and 23.3% (95%CI: 18.2–28.4%), respectively.
Table 1: Result of different Dry Eye Disease tests in 570 subjects

Click here to view
Table 2: Dry eye disease diagnosis (n=570)

Click here to view


Our results of lower prevalence offer a different perspective. Some other Indian studies have also reported lesser prevalence rates—18.4%[4] and 15.4%,[5] which are more aligned to ours, and less alarming.

All the above studies [1],[2],[3],[4],[5] are hospital-based, and generalization of results should be done cautiously. Studies [4],[5] reporting low DE prevalence like ours, are from less urban areas than those [1],[2] reporting higher prevalence. The degree of urbanization influences lifestyle, and exposure to environmental risk factors which may explain the differences. Ocular symptoms were less reported in our study. It is possible that the OSDI questionnaire that we used, and which has been designed specifically for a western population, was less suitable in our setting. Our diagnosis criteria was more stringent than others,[1] which may be a reason for the lower prevalence rate. It is also possible that DE is less uniformly distributed across India, with pockets of higher prevalence. Therefore, any extrapolation [2] to whole of India must be done with circumspection. A multi-centric study across India may provide a more representative magnitude of DED.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.



 
  References Top

1.
Tityal JS, Falera C, Kaur M, Sharma M, Sharma N. Prevalence and risk factors of dry eye disease in north India: Ocular surface disease index-based cross-sectional hospital study. Indian J Ophthalmol 2018;66:207-11.  Back to cited text no. 1
    
2.
Rao Donthineni P, Kammari P, Shanbag SS, Singh VS, Das VA, Basu S. Incidence, demographics, types and risk factors of dry eye disease in India: Electronic medical records driven big data analytics report I. Ocul Surf 2019;17:250-6.  Back to cited text no. 2
    
3.
Chatterjee S, Agrawal D, Sharma A. Meibomian gland dysfunction in a hospital-based population in central India. Cornea 2019. doi: 10.1097/ICO.0000000000002217.  Back to cited text no. 3
    
4.
Sahai A, Malik P. Dry eye: Prevalence and attributable risk factors in a hospital-based population. Indian J Ophthalmol 2005;53:87-91.  Back to cited text no. 4
[PUBMED]  [Full text]  
5.
Rege A, Kulkarni V, Puthran N, Khandgave T. A clinical study on subtype-based prevalence of dry eye. J Clin Diagn Res 2013;7:2207-10.  Back to cited text no. 5
    



 
 
    Tables

  [Table 1], [Table 2]


This article has been cited by
1 Study of dry eye syndrome: Focus on causative factors, treatment modalities, quality of life, and preservatives used in eye drops
Pratham M Raval, Harsh H Patel, Dipali M Purohit, Reema M Raval, Shikha V Sood
Indian Journal of Ophthalmology. 2023; 71(4): 1587
[Pubmed] | [DOI]
2 Prevalence of symptoms of dry eye disease in an urban Indian population
Samrat Chatterjee, Deepshikha Agrawal, Gul Sanowar, Rushi Kandoi
Indian Journal of Ophthalmology. 2021; 69(5): 1061
[Pubmed] | [DOI]
3 Short tear film breakup time-type of dry eye in India
Samrat Chatterjee, Deepshikha Agrawal
Indian Journal of Ophthalmology. 2021; 69(12): 3463
[Pubmed] | [DOI]



 

Top
 
 
  Search
 
    Similar in PUBMED
   Search Pubmed for
   Search in Google Scholar for
    Access Statistics
    Email Alert *
    Add to My List *
* Registration required (free)  

 
  In this article
References
Article Tables

 Article Access Statistics
    Viewed2060    
    Printed38    
    Emailed0    
    PDF Downloaded194    
    Comments [Add]    
    Cited by others 3    

Recommend this journal